MPC Based Soil Moisture Regulation of a Canal-Connected Crop Field

Abstract Model Predictive Control has found many applications in the domain of precision irrigation for agriculture. Such model-based approaches have been reported to reduce water wastage in both on-farm irrigation and off-farm water delivery systems. On-farm regulators are typically designed to generate setpoints for water supply that must be met independently by the irrigation delivery control system. Such a decoupling between the on-farm and off-farm control systems may reduce the effectiveness of the overall control scheme. In this paper, we formulate a single MPC-based controller to service both the on-farm water demand and the regulatory requirements of water level in the canal pools. Due to human involvement in operation of the farm-level water outlets, the control output is produced in a manner that can be interpreted as a schedule for the farmer to open or close the outlets. Simulation results demonstrate satisfactory control in the presence of disturbances in precipitation and crop evapo-transpiration.